354 
NOTES TO THE 
ever there is one distinguishing mark which may always set 
any question as to species at rest ; it is that the stoat always 
has a black tip to its tail, and the weasel never. 
Trom its size and strength the stoat is far more formidable 
than the w^easel, but, with the exception that the latter turns his 
attention a good deal to mice and moles, to which the stoat 
seldom condescends, their ravages are very similar. 
In our islands the stoat retains the same coat winter and 
summer, except in the north, where it is said occasionally in 
hard winters to assume a white or ermine garb. 
Very often stoats and weasels attack Mr. l)avy's call and 
" brace birds " when he is out bird-catching. They always seize 
them by the head. Tlie weasel wdll get through the ordinary 
water-pot hole of a bird-cage ; he will get through any hole that 
will pass his head. A tame weasel is a very amusing creature. 
lioOKS, p. 47. — Mr. Sawyer, of Eichmond Park, writes : — 
" The best thing I have ever found to keep rooks off, is thin 
string tied from stick to stick across the field in various direc- 
tions." 
AVliite rooks are not uncommon. A few white and cream- 
coloured starlings are seen every year ; if the eye is black, the 
white starling, after moulting, will come to its proper colour, 
but if it has a pink eye, it will become white and, as a rule, will 
have flesh-coloured legs. 
Bullfinches, p. 48. — Mr. Davy writes : — 
" Black bullfinches by some persons are thought a great rarity, 
but not so with my bird-catcliers ; for when a bird moults out 
of colour, as a rule, it loses its natural hoop or call ; it is then of 
course, of no use as a call-bird. The reason of its becoming black is 
overfeediiig with hempseed, which causes weakness in moulting. 
A bird once black, either cock or hen, may, by breaking off this 
food by degrees, and feeding on summer rape and canary, be 
brought to its natural colour in the next moult — give plenty of 
green food also. I know of one cock bullfinch, now in good 
health, that has been worked out catching, almost daily, nine 
months in the year ; it is in beautiful plumage, and is kept in a 
very small cage. This bird has plenty of hemp among its ordi- 
nary seed, but by being continually exposed to the fresh air in 
different parts of the country, and constantly getting a ducking 
with rain, the seed does not affect the plumage. The above call or 
decoy-bird v;as four years old in June last ; it has been the means 
during its career of causing the entrapping by nets and birdlime 
of not less than from 300 to 400 birds. 
